Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a few more favorite spring photos I took a couple of weeks ago---before this week of non-stop rain...
p.s. These are all straight-out-of-camera images, no photoshop or other enhancements---yet ;)!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
New Website + more spring close-ups
Well, if I've been absent, it's only 'cause I was painstakingly remaking all the template pages for my website which hasn't been updated for almost 2 years! That was when my hard drive died, eating everything including my website templates. Once they were all ready to save & upload, it became another week long chore to find a compatible ftp server. Eventually I did, and am so thrilled I'm back in biz with my art website once more! Check it out & let me know what you think. Any suggestions? More changes still to come, but at least now I can change it if I want!!
Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a few more favorite spring photos I took a couple of weeks ago---before this week of non-stop rain...
p.s. These are all straight-out-of-camera images, no photoshop or other enhancements---yet ;)!
Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a few more favorite spring photos I took a couple of weeks ago---before this week of non-stop rain...
p.s. These are all straight-out-of-camera images, no photoshop or other enhancements---yet ;)!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Spring Showers bring Spring Flowers!
I've been blown away by our display of spring flowers this year. I always love our front yard in the spring, especially the daffodils that come up every year without any effort needed by me (aside from the initial planting years ago!), but for some reason this year they seem exceptionally abundant! These photos were taken with our new little Olympus 370. No I'm not paid to advertise this gem, but I've sure enjoyed its super-macro abilities!
This is what our backyard looked like during lunch on one of those sunny days we had a couple of weeks ago. I loved how the apple tree branches engulfed the whole yard like a big hug! Truly a winter or early spring view since once the leaves appear the shadow branches disappear.
Our poor trillium, hidden under the apple tree, getting chewed up by nasty slugs I'm guessing. Once I discovered it's tattered appearance I raked all the big maple leaves away from the base, hoping to eliminate hiding places for those slimy pests...
Now I'm in the front yard, visually diving into the glory of the daffodil abundance! Note to self---plant daffodils in the back yard!
This one below has become my computer desktop.
A random plum blossom, greeting the sun!
And last, but not least (in my eyes!) is a single bloom from our Kerria Japonica bush.
Sadly, one of my daughters hates this plant---maybe both---since when it rains it droops into the driveway, making passage difficult, especially if on a bike! Last night, my youngest, on purpose parked the car, right so I'd have to get out, under the soggy Kerria---ha, ha, ha. Too bad my oldest wasn't there to appreciate her efforts! Luckily for me, she moved the car over a bit so I didn't have to get drenched!
This is what our backyard looked like during lunch on one of those sunny days we had a couple of weeks ago. I loved how the apple tree branches engulfed the whole yard like a big hug! Truly a winter or early spring view since once the leaves appear the shadow branches disappear. 
Our poor trillium, hidden under the apple tree, getting chewed up by nasty slugs I'm guessing. Once I discovered it's tattered appearance I raked all the big maple leaves away from the base, hoping to eliminate hiding places for those slimy pests...
Now I'm in the front yard, visually diving into the glory of the daffodil abundance! Note to self---plant daffodils in the back yard!
This one below has become my computer desktop.
A random plum blossom, greeting the sun!
And last, but not least (in my eyes!) is a single bloom from our Kerria Japonica bush. 
Sadly, one of my daughters hates this plant---maybe both---since when it rains it droops into the driveway, making passage difficult, especially if on a bike! Last night, my youngest, on purpose parked the car, right so I'd have to get out, under the soggy Kerria---ha, ha, ha. Too bad my oldest wasn't there to appreciate her efforts! Luckily for me, she moved the car over a bit so I didn't have to get drenched!
Monday, March 30, 2009
A little spring break escape:
We'd been contemplating a little road trip during spring break, sitting around the breakfast table w/our daughter, wondering if & where, when her phone rang. It was a friend of hers, stranded in our town, suddenly without a ride to Arcata CA where she and her roommate were to start back at college the following day! Well, the timing couldn't have been better---we now had a destination, and reason to go somewhere! In 3 hours we were packed & off on a 6 + hour road trip, 3 girls in the back seat, chatting away, our car stuffed, including the girl's Betta Fish, Dynamite! He was tucked between bags behind their heads, in a wine carafe...
We drove through all sorts of weather, spying snow not that far off the freeway, and even driving through some now and then, but mostly enjoyed a pretty nice little 3 day vacation! Here are some pics of our trip:
Off we go!
We're definitely not at home anymore! This shows the town square in Arcata.
On a tour of Humboldt State University, we spied this cool tile mural. It's on a building that used to be an elementary school.
Of course, if you're in Arcata, you have to go across the bay to Eureka and take a peek at this amazing house...
This was across the street!
We even stopped in Trinidad on our way home! Exotic travels! Sadly, it wasn't the Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela, but it was a beach harbor, north of Arcata. Only 231 stairs down...and back up!
Another have-to-do on a trip down to Arcata is to go on a hike in the redwoods---they're stunningly massive, to say the least! Nothing was photoshopped in these photos---those tree trunks are really that much larger than the people!!
Talk about feeling small!!
Then again, maybe it was something in the water.....
We drove through all sorts of weather, spying snow not that far off the freeway, and even driving through some now and then, but mostly enjoyed a pretty nice little 3 day vacation! Here are some pics of our trip:
Off we go!
We're definitely not at home anymore! This shows the town square in Arcata.
On a tour of Humboldt State University, we spied this cool tile mural. It's on a building that used to be an elementary school.
Of course, if you're in Arcata, you have to go across the bay to Eureka and take a peek at this amazing house...
This was across the street!
We even stopped in Trinidad on our way home! Exotic travels! Sadly, it wasn't the Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela, but it was a beach harbor, north of Arcata. Only 231 stairs down...and back up!
Another have-to-do on a trip down to Arcata is to go on a hike in the redwoods---they're stunningly massive, to say the least! Nothing was photoshopped in these photos---those tree trunks are really that much larger than the people!!
Talk about feeling small!!
Then again, maybe it was something in the water.....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Latest obsession
I've been working with beads again, and seeing them all lined up in my studio and the sun streaming through my window inspired me to pull out the camera for a photo shoot!
Ok, break time is over, back to it!
Ok, break time is over, back to it!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Super macro
I finally read the instructions on our teeny new camera last week, which gave me a few new tips and tricks to try, but so far, my favorite setting is the super macro setting.
Amazing what smaller cameras are capable of. Sure I still love my Canon Digital SLR, but for a little, lightweight, go-everywhere camera, this one is quite stellar!
Amazing what smaller cameras are capable of. Sure I still love my Canon Digital SLR, but for a little, lightweight, go-everywhere camera, this one is quite stellar!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
All together now:
Awwwwwwwww......
and 3 weeks later:
Almost 3 weeks ago my parents adopted a mama & baby siamese! They'd been dumped on campus---the mama & her 4 babies---but rescued and now the last baby left & the mama are happily entertaining my folks! Lucky us---we get to go visit and watch them play. The mama is tiny, possibly just a year old herself, so still young and full of spunk. Such fun!
and 3 weeks later:
Almost 3 weeks ago my parents adopted a mama & baby siamese! They'd been dumped on campus---the mama & her 4 babies---but rescued and now the last baby left & the mama are happily entertaining my folks! Lucky us---we get to go visit and watch them play. The mama is tiny, possibly just a year old herself, so still young and full of spunk. Such fun!
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Different Perspective
So, I hinted at something different in the below post, and this is what I painted for a show at New Morning Bakery. One of my favorite things they serve is their chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. They threw out a call for artwork to help celebrate their being in business over 25 years, so one afternoon in January, I took a stroll downtown, purchased a cupcake to go, then seeing an open booth, sat for a few minutes organizing some gallery paperwork. While there, I stealthily pulled out my new little olympus camera and shot 2 photos of my cupcake, snug in its to go bag.
Back home, I pulled out a canvas that I'd painted a mediocre landscaped on, sprayed it with an air compressor to blow off any loose pastel, then gave it a quick wash with water. (nice test to see how tough pva spray is on pastel, on canvas!) Then I sketched on my painting. Below is that initial drawing, turned sideways so you can see the previous landscape as it's still portrayed on that washed canvas.
It's a bit hard to see the blue pastel drawing lines on the canvas, but if you right click on the photo you can enlarge it in another window or tab, and see them better.
This next photo shows the painting with the first layer of soft pastel---this time you can kind of see what I'm painting, but a lot of the background is still showing through.
After spraying with pva, I painted another layer with soft pastel, and again sprayed the surface with diluted pva size. Here's a shot of the 2nd layer.
After more layers, time studying it, more painting, more time staring at it, more fiddling, I finished! (It's often a major accomplishment to decide one is truly finished...fiddling with a painting can be an on-going process!)
Close-up of the cupcake.
I enjoyed working on this painting a lot---playing with the colors, trying to stay loose, and letting the pastels create the texture I was hoping for. All in all, I was pretty happy with this one! What do you think? Any suggestions?
Oh, it's painted on 1 1/2" thick 16x20" primed canvas with a black acrylic painted edge. It's for sale, and if you'd like more information, please leave a comment or email me!
Back home, I pulled out a canvas that I'd painted a mediocre landscaped on, sprayed it with an air compressor to blow off any loose pastel, then gave it a quick wash with water. (nice test to see how tough pva spray is on pastel, on canvas!) Then I sketched on my painting. Below is that initial drawing, turned sideways so you can see the previous landscape as it's still portrayed on that washed canvas.
It's a bit hard to see the blue pastel drawing lines on the canvas, but if you right click on the photo you can enlarge it in another window or tab, and see them better.
This next photo shows the painting with the first layer of soft pastel---this time you can kind of see what I'm painting, but a lot of the background is still showing through.
After spraying with pva, I painted another layer with soft pastel, and again sprayed the surface with diluted pva size. Here's a shot of the 2nd layer.
After more layers, time studying it, more painting, more time staring at it, more fiddling, I finished! (It's often a major accomplishment to decide one is truly finished...fiddling with a painting can be an on-going process!)
Close-up of the cupcake.
I enjoyed working on this painting a lot---playing with the colors, trying to stay loose, and letting the pastels create the texture I was hoping for. All in all, I was pretty happy with this one! What do you think? Any suggestions?
Oh, it's painted on 1 1/2" thick 16x20" primed canvas with a black acrylic painted edge. It's for sale, and if you'd like more information, please leave a comment or email me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)